A blog for anyone who needs to know they are not alone in raising a bipolar child.

About our Daughter

I am mother to four wonderful daughters, ages 17, 19, 21, and 23, and wife to the greatest husband on earth. God has given us a special child to raise one who was diagnosed with early-onset bipolar disorder at the age of seven, though she showed signs of it from the age of fifteen months. She also has ADHD, Sensory Integration Disorder (sensory seeking), Dyslexia, and Non-Verbal Learning Disorder-NOS, all typical comorbidities for a bipolar child. In spite of the trials, she enjoys lacrosse, running (finished her first marathon in October of 2014!), and reading and writing her own books. I will share with you the many joys and sorrows we have faced and will face in the future with the hope that you may find better understanding about this mental illness caused by both chemical and structural abnormalities in the brain. I desire that you will be encouraged by this blog if you are also dealing with a bipolar child. Thank you for reading and sharing in our journey.

How Did You Know She Was Bipolar So Young?

I wrote a long explanation of how we came to this bipolar diagnosis in a child so young under my post of March 19th of 2009. If your child or a child you know bears similarities, please seek out a good psychiatrist and don't wait for "things to get better." Often they will simply get worse, and the longer a child is unmedicated, the more damage their brain can accrue. Early diagnoses and treatment are key to providing these children with a chance at a successful life later as a teen and an adult.

Never change, start or stop a medication without the approval of your child's physician!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

I'm Back

My Apple laptop came back better than new, so I am up and blogging again. Things have been going pretty well here since my last posting. Caroline continues to do well in school and is enjoying basketball. The only minor mishap last week was my forgetting to put in the smaller 50 mg Lamictal dose in her med box in addition to the 150mg for about five days. I figured this out when one morning she woke up and was extremely depressed, so unlike how she had been. I immediately checked her med box, and yes, I had left out the smaller pill of the anti-depressant-like Lamictal for days. So I kept her home from school that day, knowing that nothing would go well if she went. She was able to go back the next day, and has been much better since except for Sunday. We found that on either Saturday night or Sunday morning she must have dropped one of her Lithium pills while taking her myriad of drugs, because I found one under the kitchen table Sunday afternoon. She had been acting way too "up" so that must have been the cause. It is amazing what one little pill can do.

I taped the bottle containing the smaller dose of Lamictal to the larger bottle of the bigger dose of Lamictal so I can't forget.

Tonight a new friend of mine shared about her battle with breast cancer, in detail. I haven't ever met anyone before close to me who has gone through this, so I was really in awe of her strength and faith. Bipolar disorder does have a mortality rate (about 18%), but I wonder if breast cancer tops it. I am reminded that I am overdue for a mammogram. I am calling the doctor tomorrow.

4 comments:

I am glad you are back! I was anxious to hear how your daughter is doing. Take a peek at my daughter's blog, www.lineajohnson.blogspot.com She just re-posted (if that is a word!) her bipolar checklist. Your daughter might be interested. It took us a long time to work through the medications. She just was added something new to the mix. She told me, "Two years ago I would have been terrified about this. Now I trust my doctor...and myself!" Eventually!! Thank you and welcome back! Cinda

Welcome back. The doc just increased Jonathan's ADHD meds. My husband, being the son of a pharmacist is so much better about doing "the right thing." He dumped the old dose down the toilet and threw out the bottle. Me, I would've save the lower dose in the event we couldn't get back into the doc before we ran out of the Rx. This doc only writes for 30 days and he's getting more and more difficult to get in to see w/in 30 days.

Thanks, everyone, for the welcome back. I so enjoy having friends online who are familiar with all of the medication issues, social issues, school issues, etc. I don't feel alone anymore like I used to.

Present Medications

I am listing our daughter's medications because I know a lot of my followers would be interested in comparing notes, especially those just starting out on this journey. We started with just one medication, Trileptal, seven years ago. This ballooning to several meds is typical. Most bp kids end up needing at least one atypical anti-pyschotic, and one to two mood stabilizers, and often a sleep aid.